For Fiscal Cliff Deal, So Close Yet So Far

The quest to avert the fiscal cliff is as uncertain as ever after rival plans were rejected. WSJ reporters break down how the negotiations will play out from this point on.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... I ... silk some people may start to read to the fiscal cliff servicemen and flattening the collectors as rollercoaster and we were up last week this week were to ... read or we have to have election wind up with the status quo in the house in the Senate the White House and in terms of the status quo again with the with the debt ... load back were restarted ... pasted to spend the whole week ... doing this sideshow couldn't negotiation on plan B V has been any real substantive talks to him to the point now are actually pretty close to the engine is not a lot of stuff to show for it and can be just extends tax cuts for just about everywhere in the country that doesn't fix met many of the underlying problems ... which is just a sign that the talks either weren't moving fast enough for for for House Republicans ... and choosing isn't boasts the means to confess that they were making progress here there were there was a compromise on both sides ... and as Obama put that in his press conference today ... at ... not that far I ate it were heading toward a place where it looked like they were getting close in the office and it was deeply held and ... Obama Saturn or CNET can take it beyond ... anything I would just take the deal but it did it with a little bit surprising to see things go off the rails when they were ... putting the right direction what's confusing is that like what we all thought going in would be the big moments of concessions were actually achieved earlier this week were late last week and ... up ... John Binner takes Republicans to appoint place where they're willing to accept some tax rate increases million dollars in an oven income but still that broke the back of that that question ... and present Obama said we can live with reducing the inflation rate for Social Security ... benefits we can which means a ... lower benefits of toasters and he's taken in entitlement cuts ... you would've thought those were the big moments and it turns out was enough right ... it really interesting and confusing about this for families and businesses ... is there was use to watch in Pediatrics and is you know ... they compose employees in ... trying to get leverage ... should tell what exactly is that it isn't as bad as it looks as it is confusing as it is or is a really ... you know to be some call that thing at the end of where they sorta shake hands or when certain said that they did their best to try to get the most of the other side ... at this point it's hard to see her ... see a scenario where they do commit ... to a couple isn't shake hands and say you know we did the best ... of the question about that because we've been having these discussions come in at high altitude and high salary levels ... but I know people knew who are in our income level ... who actually supplement the incomes of say elderly parents who are on fixed incomes ... you know through no fault of their only were targeted sellers of a debt high enough to bring in huge benefits of the kids arrested trying to help them ... with that that this thing Etsy washes up in ... it's the kids whom Simon don't have as much disposable income so what happens to the parent that you've been trying to keep all of ... you know of the federal dole scheme to offer food stamps keep him off of all these other federal programs ... by supplementing their income is what happens to ... all of it's it's I mean the the impact of go over the fiscal cliff a service agreement will be to be a real jolt and mostly ... the biggest impact beyond the taxable to tax will really go up everybody know ... Univeristy ... maybe a ... hundred or two or dollars per paycheck extra going to the federal government the thrill of grocery money that's gas money ... Mr. been released on the tax rates go up the payroll tax ... reduction ... was put in effect two years ago also goes away at the same time in their sheer immediate impact as well as Akron and when that was testing cut from the federal program to see ... the impact over the place so ... you know the impasse ... both sides of things here but the manager baby ... dipping into January with a brief ... priests tell it but you can much further ... you can really cause a problem now on I think the assumption has to be the you can undo Congress's Congress they can do when they can and do whatever they feel like doing that mostly ... and ... don't roll that back you will get maple later ... but in the short term ... no waiters later short-term is now and I don't think you can deny that ... there's a real and a psychological impact if that's what happens ... the scary prospect that the politicians talk about this kind of tactical tear when he um maybe we should go aircraft missile Gets More leverage and and and the ... date the type that I kept asking that we will talk to some of the fence and in the White House ... kind of behind the scenes in the state this scene is when this happens this is not just a testing is a people's lives in people's pocketbooks without ... whom there are very real ... just this year ... she keep coming back up outside the Beltway and outside of the you know that the chest and discussions that we seem to have ... this is the Christmas season this is the holiday season this is what people would normally be shopping and going out to stores and buying things on Etsy trying to help boost the economy ... are people already starting to throttle back to ah to be on certainty and and what does that mean for business ... well I think some to some extent of this the striking thing is then the stock market has remained up ... even while this process hit the skids once again this week so much or people actually believe in iRobot consumers up my impression is that Christmas shopping has been ... reasonably good so I'm not sure that this is ... been absorbed are believed by people and an aviation because maybe this is all ... bluffing but I don't think the real ... the the the pre January first economic impact of the leopard one lesson we learn from the debt ceiling was that no one really pays attention to the last few days in the last week with the debt ceiling or end of July early August it was just absolute mayhem with financial markets the car was caught up in down ... two hundred and three points today ... you know the downgrade came back into the whole process really snowball quickly and I think ... I prefer the politicians haven't seen that so that there was no ... impetus for us to act because you know we can kind of advances process to muddle through ... but that once people start really ... go zooming in on this that when things get a motivation for Republicans really is that they don't believe that if they agree to tax increases now don't get leader of the spending cuts that are promising or some evidence in history to support that ... aam and sadly I don't think they believe the ... present has really shown seriousness about one in the collectors in time for Medicare and Social Security so ... they're arguing the long term ... the strategy here when everybody else ... around this table and elsewhere ... is more focused on the short term I think that's a tough balancing act in this one of the reasons this is really coming together ... both sides think that the other side ... has not been serious about right that the ... network it's a rather the phrase a lot right that's what they hear said in a spiffy when second press conference ... FDA said it ... and he thinks that the president has been serious about making kites ... and the Democrats think that the Republicans had serious ... about raising revenue and and so ... there's a dish or basic disconnect what does lead to serious mean in this process